Battle of the Flood

Today I woke up with optimism and joy (little did I know what was coming--I was going to need it!). I had a great nine hours of sleep and my kids were happy and the world was just a great place to be. Part of my joy came from a great talk I heard last night that really boosted my spirits. Then I read some things this morning that added to my positive outlook. I'm so grateful for the perspective that those two things provided.


For at about 10 AM, I went down to our beautifully finished basement to find it flooded with about 2 inches of water. By 2:15 that was up to 8 inches. Now, we've crested at 10 inches and we're starting to fight back. We got the broken sump pump working, and it's stopped the water from coming in. We haven't been able to get rid of the water that's already inside -- it's still raining and the water table is just too high. We're putting up a good fight though and hope to gain on it in the next few hours. If we can get the water down, then we can use the hot water and furnace again. As for right now we have no heat and no hot water.

I tell you, if you ever have to go into battle, take along the team of warriors I've had today. Not only do they work really hard, but they lift your spirits on the battlefront and help you make it a reasonably pleasurable experience. My warriors:

First, my dear friend Emily who helped me to get the most important things

off the floor before the flooding got worse

(and her kids entertained my son by playing in the giant bathtub)

Second, my husband who rushed home

from work to take on this unbelievable task.

Third, my daughter who lugged countless items

up the stairs and out of harm's way.

Fourth, the wonderful Tage Wright who managed to get us a new sump pump when there are none to be had within a hundred miles, and then came and installed it and made sure everything was in working order. His feet were numb and bright pink from being in the freezing water. Thanks Tage!

(Sorry I forgot to take your picture)

Fifth, all the wonderful people from church that have called to check on us.

What an amazing bunch of people.

I'll always be grateful for your encouraging words and offers to help.

We'll probably take you up on it once the flood has receded.

Someday, this March will be a month I remember with a smile and a chuckle for all the struggles we've faced as a family. I have to say, I haven't shed a tear yet today; we've been able to laugh and just deal with the situation. I'm sure the tears will come when we have to start hauling our cherished belongings to the dump, but for now, we're just grateful we're all safe, reasonably healthy and that we've had help to start dealing with this wet wonderland we call a basement.

Hit by a truck

OK. So none of us has been hit by a truck -- it just feels like it.

This post may be more information than you'll ever want to know about our family's medical history, so feel free to skip it if you choose. I just want to document it now so that a few months from now when it's a distant memory, I can look back and laugh about it.

First Maddie had a terrible stomach flu. There was major clean-up and a very sick girl. It lasted for about two days. That was Monday and Tuesday.

On Thursday, I tore the ligament that runs along the bottom of my right foot. I was just walking down the stairs and POP! I heard and felt it just snap. It was awful. I cried for about an hour. During that time, I was so mad, I ripped a towel rack off the wall and made a great big hole in the drywall. Jared has been kind enough to repair the damages.

Friday, I got the same stomach flu. Bad. Very bad. It took about three days for me to recover. I couldn't walk at all -- this led to some perilous moments as I tried to rush through the house hobbling to and fro.

After recovering from the flu, I finally got to see the foot doctor and he says that I should be grateful for the tear -- it probably saved me from having foot surgery. Yahoo! No surgery. But, he has instructed me to stay off it for 30 days. I would have needed a cast, but my orthotics are mini-casts and will do just fine. Yahoo! No cast!

Then, Little John had double ear infections and was put on antibiotics. They have fixed the ears, but caused the digestive track problems previously mentioned in another post.

Now, I have a cold. Because of my asthma I can't breathe. I'm waiting for the doctor to call in a prescription for antibiotics to help me get over it.

In the good news category -- I love that spring is here. We're starting to think about planting the garden, vacations and summer plans.

I can't wait for these diseases to disappear so that we all feel like getting outside and enjoying the sunshine. Basking in the warm sun sounds so good right now!

It's a sign

This morning Little John slept in. Yahoo -- I'm hoping to meet some friends for lunch, and if he slept in, then I could push his nap back an hour or two. Thus, mom gets what she wants and boy gets sleep. Everyone would have been a winner.

But...

This is what I heard when John woke up this morning --

"MOM! Uh, oh! Mess! Mom! I need bath! Mess! Mess!"

I hustled. Any mom with a two-year-old boy that thinks something is a mess would hustle. They don't consider anything a mess.

You can thank me later that this post does not include pictures. Some of you that are not mothers might want to skip the rest of the gory details.

His clothes, the bedding, his favorite blanket, the crib rails, the wall all covered in an undesirable substance. I suddenly saw my wonderful lunch plans fly out the window. This was a sign -- DO NOT TAKE YOUR CHILD FOR A SIT-DOWN MEAL IN A PUBLIC PLACE -- it would be guaranteed to repeat.

My only question is, how did all of that undesirable substance only leave a passing trail in the diaper? How does that work? What freak of nature makes that happen?

Essence of Maddie

Capturing the personality of a seven-year-old girl is a little harder to do in just one picture. Maddie is on the verge of so many things, yet still a young girl in my eyes.

I think this picture does a pretty good job of showing just how beautiful she is and will be as she gets older, but still retains some of her girlish charms.

Essence of John

This is my little boy distilled into one photo. Happy, bright, a little mischievous, cute and just fun to be around. I will cherish this photo forever.

Sometimes I get a little grief over how many photos I take on an outing with the family. This picture is the reason why -- sometimes it takes 50 shots of my little man to get the one that captures his personality. I love it!

Not to be held back

Little John came to me this morning with a handful of letters. "Mama, M-N-P-A, PLEASE!" he said. He sat down, pounded the floor (an indication that I was to sit as well) and said, "PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!"

He held up a letter and did his little hand gesture with his little garbled, "What is it?" and then handed it to me.

I obviously realized that he wanted to learn the letters. He would hand one to me and ask it's name. I'd tell him. We went through his stack several times. He can recognize M, A, O and sometimes T and S. The funny thing is that he can't really say the names of most of the letters. I'll say "C" and he'll say "bupirty" or something that sounds nothing like a "C". But, he thinks he's said the right thing and will ask for the next letter.

In everything in life, he will not allow us to leave him out of things, and he obviously recognizes that we know letters he doesn't yet understand. What a boy. Soon, it'll be demanding to read. I thought it would be a lot longer before I'd be back teaching these things again.

But, almost as interestingly, the boy's style will not be held back as well. He's invented his own wrist warmers, and will not take it off for any reason. Enjoy!

Hiking again!

We went back to Devil's Hopyard to hike again. This time we did about 2.5 miles. It was a little too much for all of us. Little John just isn't quite focused enough to go that far and it wears the rest of us down. Jared and I seem to have a really big problem with destination events. We can't turn around. This weekend it was just a hike that went too far. In the past, it was a 38-mile bike ride. I can't decide if this is a problem or a personality strength. I guess only time will tell.

We do really enjoy these long excursions -- after they are over and we're in the car driving home -- we always talk about what a great time was had by all.

Yet again I've added a bunch of photos. Mostly just because I like looking at them. Hope you enjoy too -- I've put them in rough chronological order. After 3 hours of hiking, it's a little hard to remember.

John the comedian

Little John has started trying to make us laugh. Who knows what is going on in that mind? Here he is working on arts and crafts, trying to get my attention.

Devil's Hopyard Hike

We had a great time hiking at Devil's Hopyard State Park yesterday for our President's Day adventure as a family. I'm not generally a fan of cold, snow or all things winter. But we had such a great time together. I didn't mind the cold one bit. The kids had a blast -- our only trouble is that John refuses to wear mittens. He wants my nice leather gloves instead.
I took about a thousand pictures, and I love looking at pictures of my family, so I hope you enjoy them too --

Of course, this winter wonderland led to a pretty fierce snowball fight--

Weather Week

We had a fun weather week last week. Jared had a couple of days off work due to high winds and Maddie missed one day for snow. The kids had a good time playing outside, and I enjoyed working on sewing projects like this Whirlygiggle quilt:

Superbowl 2010

We love the Superbowl. We may not watch another football game all year, but our little family settles in to watch this one game. Why? It might have something to do with the food, I can't deny it. Also, we really like the commercials. But, as far as football goes, last night's game was absolutely fun to watch!
For snacks this year we had soft buttery pretzels, popcorn, chocolate covered pretzels, chocolate cream cheese brownies, root beer and pink sugar cookies. We had nachos, grapes and burritos on hand, but we were too full to eat those so they'll just have to wait until another day.

John made us sing into the wii rock band microphone all through the game. Old MacDonald is his favorite rockin' tune at the moment.

Not so happy feet...

I've been battling sore feet for the last two years. The pictures above are my most recent x-rays -- you can see the extra bone sticking out on my heel that is causing so much pain. Now I have an extra piece of bone growing at the top of my right foot. Both problems are leading to tarsal tunnel. Yes, it's like carpel tunnel, but for the feet. UGH!

I've been to see the doctor twice this year, and the first visit I was lucky enough to take home and air-cast. Today I got giant pink inserts for my shoes. These babies go all the way up the sides of my feet, almost to the top of the tennis shoe.

Hopefully these beautiful pink things work, or the next step is plaster casts!

What's the up side? I'm only allowed to wear tennis shoes. Nothing else. Not until I finish physical therapy, a neurological study and have doctor clearance. Wearing tennis shoes makes my feet so much more happy at church!

Growing up

I can't believe that I had to buy Maddie two size 14 swimming suits this year. Seriously! She's seven-years-old. UGH! We're going to need to start our own clothing line for tall children soon!

OK, so I'll admit that it's a tiny bit big, but it is January and I'm hoping to make it last through the summer. And, if you look closely at the picture, it's not all that big.

We all had a good chuckle this weekend when we noticed that Maddie's head was taller than one of Jared's co-worker's shoulder. It was pretty funny to most of us anyway.

Office party

We had a great time at Jared's office party last weekend. People hung out at our house for about 6 1/2 hours. We talked, we ate, we played Rock Band, we talked and ate. It's always fun to get to know the people from the office better.